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Urwego Opportunity Bank of Rwanda (UOB) provides a variety of products tailored to serve the financial needs of economically-active poor entrepreneurs who are not served by commercial banks.   Research has shown that the poor can borrow and repay their loans as well as save for the future.  Nevertheless, the poor have always been economically marginalized by most commercial banks due to their lack of collateral and other reliable forms of security.  It is very important to understand that these people have businesses to start or to expand, but their lack of significant capital impedes their efforts to reach great heights in business.  Yet, this same economic category of people is always the largest within a developing country’s population.  This is especially true within less developed countries, such as Rwanda.  Therefore, UOB was established and exists to provide this large segment of the Rwandese population with the financial services they have always been denied.

Our clients are extremely pleased with the services they receive from UOB.  Particularly, our outstanding customer care that is performed by well trained loan officers.  These loan officers provide personalized– training, loan disbursement, and repayment collection for individual clients and Trust Groups/Community Banking Groups .   Our ability and strong commitment to travel to meet our clients at convenient locations for them (as opposed to requiring their transport for meetings and loan repayment) have historically made us a unique financier of the poor in Rwanda.

UOB strives to be a microfinance bank leading in the improvement of women’s social and economic welfare.   Currently, more than 88%* of our clients are female.  Research has indicated that every penny given to a woman is more likely to benefit the whole family than when given to a man, as she will spend it on food for the household and her children’s education.

Rwanda’s middle-income class has always been financially underserved by commercial lenders with limited, if any, affordable products to meet their economic needs.   UOB expects to improve the living conditions of these individuals by providing loans for micro businesses and consumers, hence contributing to Rwanda’s economic growth and development.

UOB’s target customers are segmented into three tiers.  The first is the working and laboring poor who have few, if any, assets and limited chances to earn an income.  These clients live in squatter homes with little or no access to public services, have very limited educational opportunities, are malnourished, and earn household incomes well below the poverty line.  Typical businesses are subsistence farming, fishing, and selling basic goods out of the home or on the street.  This group constitutes the majority of the marketplace and the most under-served.  UOB largely serves these borrowers with flexible-option Community Banking loans, graduates them to New Solidarity Group loans, and then finally provides them with individual loans for micro businesses and consumers.

The second tier is the self-employed poor who make up the majority of the manufacturing and service sectors of the informal economy.  They run home-based commercial and production businesses and sometimes have small shops or stands.  Services to this group help existing businesses grow and become more profitable.  UOB generally provides this group with New Solidarity Group loans and direct-entry individual loans for micro businesses and consumers.

The third tier is the entrepreneurial poor who live at or just below the poverty line.  They operate businesses that can utilize relatively large sums of capital from which the borrower can provide some form of collateral.  These entrepreneurs have the ability to improve entire communities when their productive aptitude is unleashed, as their businesses typically create jobs in their communities.  UOB serves these customers with individual loans for micro businesses and consumers, which will typically require fixed assets as collateral.

*All numbers and figures as of April 30, 2011